This wasn't even the most infuriating part. No matter who asked why he was protecting Han Lie so staunchly, Pan Shaohang's lips were sealed as if locked, never revealing the truth.

In reality, Pan Dajun wasn't betting all his chips on Han Lie—of course not. However, after his father's tactics, which combined beatings, intimidation, and appeasement, Pan Shaohang truly believed that was the case.

A sense of responsibility and the total humiliation experienced that day made him rapidly mature. He hid Han Lie's capabilities and importance to his own family deeply within his heart.

But the more he concealed, the wilder everyone's speculations became.

Let's not touch upon what the men thought. Their wild imaginings at least had limits.

When the girls upstairs discussed it in their chats, their ideas were utterly fantastical.

"Wow! Isn't that guy surnamed Han super handsome?"

"Now you don't mind that he's got a tech-face anymore?"

"Pshaw! What does being cool in behavior have to do with the face?"

"Indeed, I've never seen Pan Shaohang act like this before. What on earth does Han Lie do?"

"Do you think the granddaughter of the top guy in Magic Capital might have taken a liking to him?"

"Come on! Can a man with such an aura really be a gold digger?"

"Then how else do you explain it?"

"Is it possible that he's undergone some secret training with a mysterious organization?"

"You really don't understand the power of love! Think about it, when did he start rising?"

"After he got beaten up by Pan Shaohang in front of Chen Yanfei?"

"Bingo! A young man couldn't bear the insult, awakened his Small Universe, and fought his way to become stronger, leveling up all the way..."

"Stop, stop, stop! Does he have armor too?"

While the girls laughed together, the boys were also quietly speculating.

And just like that, Han Lie's reputation began to quietly spread in the upper circles of Dream City, becoming more mysterious and astonishing with each retelling.

For Han Lie, this had no direct benefits.

But for the Han Family, the invisible benefits of this reputation were immeasurable.

Of course, at this moment, Han Lie wasn't in the mood to ponder over these things.

He was contemplating the soul-searching question suddenly thrown at him by Chen Yanfei.

"Let's chat openly about it. How do you really feel about love? And how do you feel about me?"

The bastard was unusually silent.

In fact, before his psychology skill reached Level 4, he himself wasn't clear about the answer to this question.

Now that he had the answer, he hesitated whether he should tell her the truth.

Chen Yanfei sensed Han Lie's hesitation. Bending down in the greenhouse, she plucked two bright red, luscious strawberries.

"Love is not a strawberry; you can't just pick and eat the prettiest one you see and then happily go on to choose the next..."

Han Lie finally made up his mind.

Screw it. It was time to lay it all out. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

"I don't know if you've ever heard of a theory..."

"Hmm?"

Chen Yanfei lifted her head. Her profile, while not exquisitely delicate, possessed a liveliness and vividness that others lacked, much like her personality.

Han Lie slowly began to speak. "A person will spend his lifetime chasing something from his youth that he yearned for but couldn't reach, trying to fill a void in his soul. But in reality, once something is lost, it's lost for good. Anything you find to replace it can only satisfy a temporary need. That void can never truly be filled. No matter what you put into it, eventually, it will all leak out..."

"Is this the latest trick of a top-level jerk?"

Chen Yanfei raised her eyebrows, her laugh somewhat mocking, as she didn't seem inclined to accept Han Lie's reasoning.

At this, Han Lie felt a bit of regret, but not disappointment.

"Indeed, a girl like you who has been well protected from the start and has never been hurt is certainly unable to understand."

Chen Yanfei pursed her lips, her expression turning serious.

"Don't treat me like an idiot! That's psychologist Freud's viewpoint, isn't it? People spend their entire lives healing the shadows of their childhood... But does your childhood have anything to do with your love life?"

But the shadow that fell upon my heart during my youthful infatuation was cast by you...

Han Lie shook his head and fell silent.

He was very aware that his feelings for Chen Yanfei were not pure.

Or rather, they had been pure before, but after rebirth, they were not.

Roughly speaking, Chen Yanfei embodied the greatest beauty, injustice, regret, and scars deep inside Han Lie's heart from his past life.

Having been reborn, he had the opportunity to make amends. However, he was clearly aware that if he couldn't spend a life of fidelity with Chen Yanfei, truly enjoying that kind of relatively simple happiness, then any so-called atonement would be nothing but a joke.

Quite a dilemma, isn't it? If he couldn't have Chen Yanfei, then that unresolved feeling in his heart would never be settled. If he got Chen Yanfei but continued his philandering ways, he would definitely hurt her and torment himself, further exacerbating the original scars. And if, for Chen Yanfei's sake, he reformed himself... setting aside the practical issues, just from a psychological point of view, that would be a betrayal of himself. So, what if he completely forgot about Chen Yanfei?

The Han Lie of his previous life and the Han Lie of now were inseparably one and the same. His current knowledge and skills had reshaped his thinking, but his core personality hadn't changed.

Forgetting Chen Yanfei would amount to a complete denial of his previous life as a loser.

Only the weak and incapable deny their past selves. The strong, however, dare to admit their past idiocy and laugh, saying, "That was a part of me, and I'm fond of that innocent yet foolish youth."

Hence, it was an unsolvable problem.

After all, Han Lie was still human, not a god. Even with a mindset as well-rounded as Wang Yangming's, he was still plagued by obsessions, regrets, and remorse—these are indispensable parts of our lives.

His head ached from thinking so hard. Han Lie finally decided to use one more well-intentioned deception and postpone things a bit longer.

It wouldn't be for much longer—just until she returned to school. He would get her involved in something meaningful and try to prevent her from thinking about the submissive Pan and the Queen's court. Time always has a way of diluting many things.

The plan was beautiful, yet... reality is always cruel.

Setbacks are also an indispensable part of life.

***

*I've been so sick that only now do I have the energy to pay attention to the outside world. The tsunami I predicted earlier is really coming.*

*Actually, it's quite interesting. If you look at it over a longer period, we are witnessing a brand-new chapter in history.*

*I hope Editor Shen will be merciful and let me write more serious stuff...*